“The Five” co-hosts criticized Republican opponents of Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday after the House of Representatives failed three times to elect a Speaker.
Twenty House Republicans voted against McCarthy by nominating Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona on the first ballot and Jim Jordan of Ohio on the second and third ballots. This opposition prevented the Speaker-designate from garnering the required 218 votes needed to be handed the gavel.
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The co-hosts argued that the anti-McCarthy coalition is rooting for their “own executioner” by preventing the Republican leader from assuming the Speakership. Jeanine Pirro commended McCarthy for working to raise $250 million for candidates and called on members to “get together as a party” rather than cause increased division. (RELATED: ‘Give Me A Name’: Fox News Anchor Presses GOP Rep On Who Should Step Up As House Speaker)
“Not a good look for Republicans tonight,” co-host Jesse Watters began.
“No,” Pirro replied. “The ordinary American is sitting home and saying ‘what the heck is wrong with these people?’ We re-elected them. We worked hard, we gave them money, we now have the majority in the House and we can’t get along with each other? They don’t have enough problems with the Democrats, that they at least can’t align against the Democrats…Stop having one ballot after another. You’ve got to get together, sit down, and find out what can we do to get nineteen people to get into our group?”
“It’s time to get together as a party, and stop embarrassing yourselves in front of the rest of us,” Pirro continued.
“They make the Squad look positively reasonable in this situation,” co-host Dana Perino said. “A lot of this is just an ideological thing. It might be a personal thing, like, I don’t like you. Okay, well, remember Nancy Pelosi? She held up in the vote. She had no proxy voting for Speaker, there’s no proxy voting for Speaker because her numbers were very, very small. But they were able to pull together.”
Co-host Greg Gutfeld said this is the “worst game of chicken ever” and accused Republicans of “screwing up their party.” Liberal co-host Jessica Tarlov argued that moderate Republicans could unite with Democrats to vote in the new Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“Who votes for their own executioner?” Gufeld responded.
Perino added that the nineteen anti-McCarthy Republicans never put forth an alternative choice to counter the Speaker-designate’s potential leadership. She argued that none of them would even listen to former President Donald Trump, who endorsed McCarthy and encouraged those in his party to back him.
The anti-McCarthy Republicans prevented the Speaker-designate from receiving the 218 votes required to become Speaker. McCarthy received 203 votes on the first two ballots, and 202 on the third after Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds flipped his vote for McCarthy for Jordan.
